As Egypt’s government tries to minimize the importance of the protests, Girish Juneja, a producer for Britain’s Channel 4 News in Cairo, spotted a remarkable symbol of the ruling National Democratic Party’s determination to hang on to power on Monday. The burned-out ruins of the party’s headquarters in Cairo, which was torched during clashes 10 days ago, is now adorned with a sunny new political poster, calling on Egyptians to rally to the N.D.P. “to ensure the future of your children.”
The US is also behing it! What the war criminal Obama says in public is not what they do behing the scenes.
Time will tell who the players are, even the ones who hide in the shadows. The big question is whether or not this turns out to be for the betterment of the Egyptian people, or just more of the same, different clothes. If the latter happens, then there will be a repeat sooner than later. That’s a big gamble to take, just to keep the status quo.
I feel Issandr El Amrani has hit the key explanation in his blog — “All of this reinforces my feeling that we are in the middle of a slow-moving coup, and possibly one planned for a long time.”
It’s well understood that the biggest threat to any dictator are those within his power structure who are ambitious to replace him. Mubarak is 82 and has been attempting to groom his son as his successor — there must be hundreds of ambitious men within Egypt’s army and NDP who wanted that plum for themselves. What a grand opportunity presented itself when the young people, encouraged by the revolution in Tunisia, took to the streets. Of course the army wouldn’t shoot its own people — this time — because they were doing exactly what the plotters needed.
Not that this detracts a thing from the courage and efforts of those brave protesters — it just accounts for the chink in the regime’s armour that allowed them room to operate. They were used, as they have been used for 30 years. Justice demands that the beneficiaries of the coup to replace Mubarak are obliged to grant them security and some of the freedom and dignity they deserve.